The present invention relates generally to the manufacture of a laminate and, more particularly, to a laminate wherein the edges of a deformable surface layer are folded under and molded in a total bonded relationship to the edges of a plastic support layer during the injection of the plastic material.
In the past, in the manufacture of laminates having a deformable surface layer such as cloth or carpet and a plastic support layer, the cloth or carpet was stretched over the plastic support layer and the edges of the cloth or carpet were folded and tacked or stapled to the bottom of the plastic support layer.
A total bonded relationship can be achieved by placing the deformable surface layer into the mold unit and injecting a plastic material to form a plastic support layer which is molded in a total bonded relationship with the deformable surface layer. However, a problem with this method of molding the plastic support layer to the deformable surface layer is that the edges of the deformable surface layer do not bond to the bottom of the plastic support layer because it has not been possible to pre-fold them accordingly so as to bond to the bottom of the injected plastic material.
The difficulties in this prior art method of manufacturing laminates are substantially eliminated by the present invention.